Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

(previous semesters)

Dream Interpretation from Antiquity to Freud
FRS 144

At the dawn of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud’s work on the interpretation of dreams provided the foundation of modern psychoanalysis. Freud’s celebrity (in spite of later revisions of his views) may tempt us to think of him as “the first” truly insightful interpreter of dreams. However, Freud himself acknowledges his awareness of an abundant and much earlier literature going back to Biblical and Graeco-Roman antiquity, where dream interpretation is primarily understood as a method of predicting the future. What did Freud make of this literature? How did he use it? Do the methods and principles applied to dream interpretation in pre-modern societies have anything in common with those employed by Freud and his successors? The transformation of the pagan Graeco-Roman tradition of dream interpretation by modern psychoanalysis is only the latest in a series of transformations: It had previously been adopted and adapted by Christian Byzantium and medieval Islam. The seminar will explore ancient dream interpretation as both a written and an oral tradition and will focus on its continuity as well as the changes it underwent in order to serve societies with different religions, languages, political systems, and social structures. The contemporary survival of this tradition in certain parts of the world will also be discussed. Parallels between past and present beliefs and practices regarding dream interpretation will be continuously drawn.

Students will be required to write a one-page assignment almost every week. Grades will be assigned on the basis of these weekly assignments, as well as class participation and a final paper.
Maria Mavroudi: Seminar: 7:30-10:30 pm W

Today nation-states organize our political world and the market organizes international trade. Throughout much of history, however, people lived in empires, not nation-states, and international trade was the specialty of trading diasporas. These diasporas were usually, but not always, organized along familial and ethnic lines. This course will examine several empires, and the diasporas that they generated, to understand the economics and the politics of international trade in a premodern, imperial world. The focus will be on the great landed empires of Eurasia—Iran, the Mughals in India and the Ottoman Empire—in the early modern era, 16th to 18th centuries.

Traders in Eurasia traditionally prospered by bringing the luxury goods of the East (silk and spices, to name just two) to a European market. It was this fabled trade that took Marco Polo on his famous trip to China in the 13th century. By the early modern period, this trade was in flux; goods were still carried in the transit trade from East to West, but at the same time a new commerce in locally produced goods grew up alongside it. At the same time, the Eurasian empires and Eurasian trading diasporas were increasingly confronted with the challenge of European commercial expansion in India, Iran, and, to a lesser extent, the Ottoman Empire. These historical realities form the context for the questions we shall ask in the course. Why is it that trading diasporas organized so much of international trade in the Eurasian empires? How did imperial rulers and merchants adjust to European trading practices? The composition of the trading diasporas is also a subject worth considering. These three empires formed an Islamic block that stretched from the eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia. Yet some of the most successful trading diasporas were formed by Christians, mostly Armenians and Greeks. How and why did Christian trading diasporas form and prosper in this Muslim world?

By the end of the course the students should have a firm grasp of the organization of international trade in a political, economic, and cultural setting that is very different from our own world. Having gained an appreciation of historical context, the students can better understand why international trade looks the way it does today
Molly Greene: Seminar: 1:30-4:20 pm T

   Elementary Modern Greek II
HLS 102/MOG 10 2

A continuation of HLS 101, aiming to develop skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing modern Greek in a cultural context. Classroom activities include videos, comprehension and grammar exercises, and discussions.
Staff: Classes: 11:00 -11:50 am MTWTh

 Advanced Modern Greek
HLS 107/MOG 107

Advanced composition and oral practice aimed at developing idiomatic written and spoken style. Discussions entirely in Greek. Introduces students to contemporary Greek culture and literature through the study of works by Cavafy, Sikelianos, Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos, and Anagnostakis, among others. Readings from articles on current Greek topics.
Staff:  Classes: 12:30 -1:20 pm MTWTh

Antiquity after Antiquity: Homer
CLA 235/HLS 235

This course looks at how Homer has been approached across the centuries, from his reception in Athens, in Rome, and in late antiquity, until new attention to Greek brought back old questions in new ways in the modern period.  These include Homer the person (one or many, he or she), the writer (written vs. oral), and the historian.  Other themes are archaeology, afterlife in visual arts; translating Homer; Homer for the late twentieth century, and the current state of Homer in American (from Troy to the claim that Homer, in the universities, has been killed)
Constanze Güthenke:  Lecture: 3:30-4:20 pm MW

Early Christian Women: From Mary Magdalene to Martyred Mothers
REL 253/WOM253/HLS/253

Explore different views in early Christianity on women and gender by critically examining ancient texts, from the New Testament, to Gnostic and other non-canonical writings, martyr-acts and evidence from the material world (inscriptions, frescoes, mosaics, papyrus document).  It introduces students to early Christian women in such roles as preachers and prophets, martyrs and monastics.  How did Christian authors view the position of women in their communities?  How do ancient debates relate to contemporary issues on gender and religion?.
AnneMarie Luijendijk:  Lecture: 10:00-10:50 am TTh

Venice and the Mediterranean
ART 330/HLS 331

This course explores the art and architecture of Venice’s Mediterranean empire, known as the stato da mar, from it beginnings in 1204 to the loss of Crete in 1669.  Our particular focus will be the artistic and cultural geography of “Venetian Crete” as it underwent series of transformations from Byzantine to Venetian to Ottoman rule, with an emphasis on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  Following a trip to Crete during Spring recess, students will participate in the construction of an inter-active website mapping the island and its cities and monuments.
Patricia F. Brown:   Seminar:  1:30-4:20 pm Th

Studies in the Classical Tradition: Ancient Satirists and the Satiric Imagination
CLA 335/HLS 335

Readings in the ancient Greek and Roman satirists, from Aristophanes to Juvenal, and their medieval and modern reception.  We shall study the nature, context, and origins of classical satire and compare the adaptation, imitation, translation, and parody of classical models in writers such as Walter of Châtillon, Chaucer John Marston (“Scourge of Villanie”), Dryden, Pope, Samuel Johnson (“London”), and F. Scott Fitzgerald (“The Great Gatsby”).  Some attention will be given also to theories of satire from antiquity to present.
Janet M. Martin: Seminar:  3:00-4:20 pm MW

Special Topics in Modern Greek Civilization:   Narratives of Displacement/Displaced Narratives
HLS 361/COM 369

This course will examine varieties of “narratives of displacement” and investigate the voice of subject that emerges from this experience.  While our main focus will be on 20th century Greek literature, writings from other national traditions will provide a basis for critical comparisons.  We will approach the term “displacement” as a, voluntary or involuntary, geographical separation from the homeland.  Four main types of displacement will be examined:  the traumatic and uprooting experience of war, the theme of the political exile, the narrativization of the immigrant experience, and the position of the cosmopolitan writer.  Along with the thematic considerations, displacement will also be sought in the formal and generic characteristics of these texts: indeterminacy between oral testimony and written text, narrative discontinuity, language ambiguity and bilingualism, etc. The reading material will be mainly from Greek literature (in English translation), which will be often compared to works from world literature with similar approaches.
Efthymia Rentzou: Seminar: 1:30-4:20 pm T

Byzantium in the 10th Century: the Age of Reconquest
HIS 437/HLS 437

The course introduces the social, political and military history of the tenth-century Byzantine state at the height of its power, and seeks to understand the background to the recovery of Byzantine political strength a that time, in the context  of both internal social, economic and administrative developments, and in that of the wider political world, in particular, relations with the Abbasid Caliphate and the regional emirates of Syria and Iraq, and with the various western powers o which Byzantium had dealings. The course depends heavily upon a close reading of contemporary texts, which are available in translation.
John F. Haldon: Seminar: 1:30 pm-4:20 pm T

The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1800
NES 437/ HIS 337HLS 337

This course surveys the history of the world’s most enduring Islamic state, the Ottoman Empire. With its beginnings in the fourteenth century, it lasted into the early years of the last century. At its height, it ruled over much of the Mediterranean as well as Central Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East and today’s Turkey.
Heath W. Lowry: Class: 1:30-3:50 pm TTh

GRADUATE COURSES

Special Topics in Hellenic Studies: Greek Paleography
HLS 500/HIS 512

This course is designed as a general introduction to the use of primary documents pertinent to Mediterranean history and culture during the ancient and medieval periods.  It will address issues of paleography, codicology, textual tradition, and the critical edition of sources. The main focus will be on Greek documents, but the issues covered will be of interest to anyone interested in the manuscript culture of the medieval Mediterranean even beyond these two languages. We will mainly study books, but will also refer to administrative documents. Though the bulk our material will be medieval, the course is of potential interest to clacissists, since the works of ancient authors survive mostly in medieval manuscripts.  The unifying theme for covering such a great chronological, geographical, cultural, and linguistic gamut will be the common developments regarding the technology of book production and the logic of authoring, editing, and reproducing texts before the advent of printing, though differences will also be discussed. Students will be encouraged to work independently in order to learn more about the written documents of the civilization and time period that most interests them beyond what will be covered in class, and will be graded based on class participation and a final paper covering an area of their special interest. In addition to the two-hour seminar discussion, those who know Greek will also read out of documents from the Byzantine period.
Maria Mavroudi: Seminar: 9:00-11:50 am W

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions:  Literary and Documentary Papyrology
REL 504/HLS 504

This seminar introduces students to the exciting world of papyrology.  Papyri have contributed greatly to our understanding of daily life, government, and textual transmission in antiquity.  The course teaches students the skills to read and understand ancient documents and literature preserved on papyrus.  Special attention will be paid to the importance pf papyri for social history.
AnneMarie Luijendijk: Seminar: 1:30-4:20 pm

Studies in Greco-Roman Religions
REL 512/JDS 512/HLS 512

This course will consider apocalypticism and messianism in classical rabbinic literature in Hebrew and Aramaic from the Mishnah through Babylonian Talmud, concluding with several early Byzantine works. It will examine the relationship to apocalyptic literature from the Second Temple period, contemporary Christian literature, related rabbinic material, and the hekhalot literature.
Martha Himmelfarb, Peter Schafer: Seminar: 1:30-4:20 pm T

Special Topics in the History of Philosophy: Plotinus’ Theory of the Soul
PHI 516/HLS 516

This seminar will focus on the question of the nature of the soul and its contribution to the functioning of the living body or ‘organism,’ at both the individual and the cosmic level. We will concentrate on two rather short but important texts from the *Enneads* (IV 2[4] and IV 7[2].9-15), but will also investigate other passages from the fourth *Ennead* that shed light on related problems. There will be some discussion of textual and historical issues, but the main emphasis will be on understanding the philosophical arguments underlying Plotinus’s views.
Paul Kalligas: Seminar: 9:00-11:50 am Th

Problems in Ancient History: Ancient and Medieval Numismatics
CLA 548/HLS 548

A seminar covering the basic methodology of numismatics, including die, hoard and archaeological analysis. The Western coinage tradition will be covered, from its origins in the Greco-Persian world through classical and Hellenistic Greek coinage, Roman imperial and provincial issues, the coinages of Byzantium, the Islamic world and medieval and renaissance Europe, Students will research and report on problems involving coinages related to their own areas of specialization. Open to undergraduates by permission of instructor.
Alan M. Stahl: Seminar: 1:30-4:20 pm Th

Advanced Topics in Computer Science: Reconstructing the Thera Frescoes
COS 598/HLS 598

The archaeological site of Akrotiri on the island of Thera (modern-day Santorini) has proven a treasure trove of information about Minoan civilization and culture. Among its most valued artifacts are wall paintings (frescoes), which have been preserved in the volcanic ash since the sixteenth century BCE. The frescoes, however, are typically recovered in fragments of a few centimeters to a few tens of centimeters in length, and reconstructing complete wall sections from the fragments occupies a major portion of the effort at Akrotiri.

As part of this course, students will participate in a project to build a computer-based system that will assist archaeologists by digitizing excavated fragments and automatically proposing matches on the basis of color, 3-D shape, and other cues. This will allow for a more rapid and more complete reconstruction of the wall paintings, with less handling of the physical fragments. Students will work with devices such as 3-D scanners, will investigate algorithms for 2-D and 3-D matching, and will learn about the application of these technologies in an archaeological setting. The course is open to students in both computer science and archaeology who are interested in applying technologies from computer graphics and computer vision to a real-life problem in archaeology.
Szymon Rusinkiewicz: Seminar: 3:00-4:20 pm TTh

Courses of Interest

Fall 2006 course offerings
Spring 2006 course offerings
Fall 2005 course offerings
Spring 2005 course offerings
Fall 2004 course offerings
Spring 2004 course offerings
Fall 2003 course offerings
Spring 2003 course offerings
Fall 2002 course offerings
Spring 2002 course offerings
Fall 2001 course offerings
Spring 2001 course offerings
Fall 2000 course offerings
Spring 2000 course offerings
Fall 1999 course offerings